Via When beliefs become identities, truth-seeking becomes hard - LessWrong, this is a description of why I say it, and I now understand why it has been so difficult to explain: it’s tied to my identity.
Julia Galef makes a final suggestion: hold a scout identity. She suggests this because having an identity that says, “I’m the kind of person who pursues the truth” makes truth-seeking easier and more meaningful. Identities are something extremely useful to humans. Holding a particular identity makes it easier to do difficult, unrewarding things associated with that identity. If you identify as a math person, it will be easier for you to study math. Even if the practical rewards for studying math usually appear in the long term, your identity means you find the short-term actions more rewarding.
As a person I ID as a “free thinker”, because it flags to others and myself that when I am unsure I fall back on seeking truth as I understand it, and applying it.
As an information worker, being “ethical” is contrary to how business is run. By declaring this up front, I bolster my resolve when asked to act in a way that harms people outside the view of my client, even though it means resisting and trying to change their mind.
I like to explain things, be clear up front, but in this case this may be a bit of a gimmick as well as a statement: if you have to ask what an ethical technologists is, we should probably have a quick discussion anyhow.
